


Stars in a Clouded Sky

by Kaiyou



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fantasy AU, M/M, Stars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-26 05:36:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6226009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaiyou/pseuds/Kaiyou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When an argument between kingdoms leaves the night sky cloudy for months, Iwaizumi notices how hard it is on Oikawa. He can't do much, but in the end, he decides he has to do something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stars in a Clouded Sky

**Author's Note:**

  * For [qvrons](https://archiveofourown.org/users/qvrons/gifts).



> Gift for Kero bc she always helps me with IwaOi things

The clouds have been covering the sky for months.

It’s because of an argument that doesn’t even have anything to do with them. Not really. Some prideful claim made by their prince at a ball that offended the prince of a neighboring kingdom. The wizards of both kingdoms were put into play, competing to see whose magic was stronger.

In a way, Iwaizumi figured it was better than war, but that didn’t make it good.

Most of the wizards efforts were put into pushing the clouds back during daylight hours, so that the crops could grow. Pushing them back at nighttime just wasn’t important.

At least, it wasn’t important to anyone who really mattered.

Oikawa mattered to Iwaizumi, though. The other boy liked to play it off like the cloud cover didn’t matter. He’d made jokes about it, even. Talked about how pretty the pure black was. That they could sneak out easier when there wasn’t any moonlight to give them away. 

Oikawa was a shitty liar, in Iwaizumi’s book.

He saw the way Oikawa kept glancing up at the sky, looking for a non-existent break in the clouds. He saw the way Oikawa doodled constellations on the edges of his papers in class. Iwaizumi remembered evenings they’d spent out on the hill behind their houses, laying back in the grass and looking up at the stars. Oikawa was quieter then, when it was just the two of them. Quieter and more focused. He told Iwaizumi stories about the stars, and about the heros and princesses who had been transformed into heavenly lights.

He even boasted that one day he’d be famous enough to be taken up himself.

“I might even let you come with me, Iwa-chan,” he’d said.

Iwaizumi had hit him, of course. Sometimes he wondered why he put up with the idiot.

But Oikawa was his best friend, and his spirit had a shine that everyone saw. It wasn’t even something so easy as a gift, either. Other students got by on traits they inherited from their ancestors, spirit power or elemental talent. Oikawa’s shine came from the inside, because he worked at it until he made it look easy.

Iwaizumi knew how hard it really was, though.

Iwaizumi always knew, because Oikawa was his best friend.

So when Oikawa started to loose his shine after a couple of months of starless skies, Iwaizumi noticed.

They didn’t talk about it though. They were too busy studying, and practicing, and making plans to beat out the teams of other wizarding schools in upcoming tournaments. If Oikawa was off his game a little bit no one said anything. They all just stepped up their game.

It wasn’t like he was sulking, after all.

It wasn’t like it was one of those times when Iwaizumi just needed to knock some sense into him.

No. This, he knew, was different.

~~~~~~~

Iwaizumi wasn’t good at every type of magic.

He was better at things like earth and fire, which balanced out well with Oikawa’s air and water. He wasn’t very good with illusion magic. Oikawa regularly beat him out when it came to attuning with plants, and surprisingly enough Kindaichi was the one who was good at working with animals.

He was at a loss for a while, therefore, about what he needed to do. He wanted to do something. It just felt wrong to have Oikawa acting like this. He still smiled, and acted outrageous, and made remarks that had Iwaizumi wanting to hit him, but still it was off.

One afternoon, while Oikawa was held back for extra practice, Iwaizumi decided to visit his grandmother in her garden. Her plants were as beautiful as always, leaves full and flowers bursting with color. As he passed his fingers over a spray of drooping blossoms, Iwaizumi wondered if he should just bring Oikawa here.

Oikawa had always loved the greenhouse.

But somehow he thought the answer might not be quite that simple.

His grandmother sat him down for a cup of tea and listened to his story. Then she made a proposal.

It wasn’t an easy proposal.

It was, he had to admit, a good proposal. And it wasn’t like he was going to be doing it all for Oikawa anyways. This would be good for him. Broaden his skills. Make him a more rounded magic-user.

Still, in the end,

If someone had forced him to tell the truth,

He was doing it for Oikawa.

(but nobody needed to know)

~~~~~~~

“This is gross, Iwa-chan!”

“Shut up and stop acting like a baby.”

“But Iwa-channn - ow.”

Iwaizumi huffed. This was a stupid idea. A stupid plan. He should never have even started it. 

He pushed the cobwebs out of his face, amazed at how fast spiders could work. He’d been inside this house just this afternoon getting everything all set up. Sure, he’d heard rumors that it was under some sort of curse and that was why it was abandoned, but he refused to believe it.

If it was under a curse, it wasn’t anything malicious, or he would’ve felt it.

So far the effect just seemed to involve the house getting dusty and full of cobwebs. If the curse reached as far as the room he’d set up, he’d be really pissed.

“It’s too dark, Iwa-chan.”

“Then make a better magelight, dumbass,” Iwaizumi retorted, leading them up the creaking staircase. He was questioning for the millionth time why he’d chosen this particular house. 

Then he thought of the solarium on the top floor, the ceiling covered with glass, and remembered.

Oikawa huffed, but the blue light bobbing ahead of them did get brighter. It wasn’t as good as the lights some of their classmates could conjure, but it was better than anything Iwaizumi could do himself.

Of course, if he’d been thinking more clearly, he could’ve just brought a flashlight. Frowning he came to the top of the stairs, turning on the landing to go to the door that would lead them up to the top room of the house. Oikawa was still making noise behind him, but he’d tuned out the words. If they were important OIkawa would let him know anyways.

“It’s just up here,” he muttered. “If you’ll stop whining.”

“I’m not whining, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa said. “I’m just explaining - why are we we even here?”

There was a bite to the words that made Iwaizumi’s hackles rise. Oikawa was the master of using his tone to convey meaning. Sometimes he did it with just a look. Their opponents, or classmates who thought they could get away with bullying him, quickly learned the power that Oikawa could wield before ever casting a spell or throwing a punch.

Normally, that bite wasn’t aimed at Iwaizumi, however. They were teammates. They were partners. They were best friends. They were -

“Why are you always so difficult,” Iwaizumi growled, stalking towards the table in the center of the room. The sky in the windows above was black, and the only light in the room was the blue ball that hovered above them, coloring everything like the sky. 

“I”m not!” Oikawa said, following him in. 

Why had even thought this was a good idea. Iwaizumi eyed the shapes on the table. It was going to go wrong. Everything was already going wrong, falling apart. He’d spent hours on this - hours and hours that Oikawa didn’t even know about it - and all of a sudden it just seemed so stupid.

“Are you listening to me?” Oikawa said, reaching out and pulling him around to face him.

“Of course I’m listening to you,” Iwaizumi said. “You keep talking after all. You never -”

Iwaizumi didn’t want to say the words that came next, so he just pushed him. 

Oikawa frowned and pushed back.

Soon they were like kids again, pushing each other back and forth. It was stupid. On some level Iwaizumi knew it was dumb, so dumb. On the other hand, it wasn’t punching, and it was better than the words that would cut too deep even though neither really meant it. It was fine, this was fine, Oikawa was such a dumbass -

And then Oikawa gave a little gasp, because his foot got caught in the canvas spilling over the edge of the table, and they were falling to the floor.

“Careful!” Iwaizumi said, turning them to shield Oikawa from the crash as one of the bottles that had been on the table fell onto the ground and shattered. He glanced back, worried, then looked at Oikawa to make sure he was ok. “There’s glass so -”

“Iwa-chan?” Oikawa asked.

His voice was full of wonder now, and his face was illuminated by the glow of bright pink as well as blue. Iwaizumi looked back, sighing, as little spots of light began rising up from the shattered glass jar and ascending to the ceiling, pink lights flickering on and off.

In response, the other jars on the table started to glow as well - green, and yellow, and blue, and purple. Iwaizumi sighed. He’d had it all planned out. He’d wanted to sit Oikawa down, say something he hadn’t figured out yet, open the jars one by one - 

But no. Nothing had to go as planned.

Sighing he waved his hand, uncorking the seals on the other jars so that those lights could ascend as well.

When he looked back, Oikawa was watching him instead of the lights. “What is this, Iwa-chan?” 

Iwaizumi felt his face heat up because of the speculation in that gaze. “Nothing, Shittykawa.”

“Nothing?” Oikawa said.

“Just a project.”

“Hmm,” Oikawa said, glancing around the room. The lights were still dim, but it was bright enough to make out the pallet of blankets Iwaizumi had laid out earlier, just like the blankets they used to lay on under the stars.

“A class project?” Oikawa said, moving over to lay back on the blankets.

“Something like that,” Iwaizumi said. 

“I see.”

After a moment Iwaizumi followed Oikawa over to the blankets, laying down on the other side. It was cooler now than it had been a moment ago. A moment ago, Oikawa had been pressed against him on the floor. Now, there was a gap between them.

Iwaizumi told himself he was thankful for the space. He was also thankful he could look up at what he’d created instead of having to look over to see Oikawa’s full reaction.

He was annoyed because it still wasn’t perfect. He’d tried doing everything right. Had gone off of charts in the library to get the proper placement. Spent ages gathering up all the lightning bugs and coaxing them to flash the right colors, training them to land in specific arrays. Still, it felt like it was less than what he could’ve done.

“It’s beautiful,” Oikawa said.

Frowning, Iwaizumi let out a breath he wasn’t even aware he’d been holding, and drank it all in.

The sky beyond the glass was still dark with clouds. On the glass, however, were bright spots of light of all different colors. They were arranged in constellations. Iwaizumi knew each one - the bear, the princess, the bridge. There was the hunter, and the monkey. The twins, one darker than the other because he wasn’t a child of the gods. There was the queen’s crown, thrown up into the sky as a reminder that no human could outshine the gods. 

In the corner was the only pair of constellations not up in the sky. He wasn’t even sure why he’d included them. It was stupid. Oikawa probably wouldn’t even notice them anyways.

“What’s that?” Oikawa said, pointing.

“Nothing,” Iwaizumi said.

Oikawa turned and looked at him. “It’s not nothing,” he said. He was using that tone of voice where Iwaizumi knew he’d figure it out eventually anyways.

“Fine,” Iwaizumi said. “It’s you.”

Oikawa’s head whipped around to look at it again. He was quiet - too quiet - the type of quiet that Oikawa had when he was deep in analysis. It bothered Iwaizumi because those were the times when Oikawa was really and truly hidden from him. Fortunately, they never lasted too long.

“I see it,” Oikawa said. “Am I - is that a ball of light?”

“Yes.”

“Huh,” Oikawa said. “And who’s the one next to me?”

That was a stupid question, and one that Iwaizumi had no desire to answer, even after Oikawa turned on his side to look him straight in the eye. He stared at him so long Iwaizumi just said, “You know, dumbass.”

“I see. Well, I suppose I did say I might let you come to heaven with me.”

“Whatever.”

“But Iwa-chan,” Oikawa said, “Why are we holding hands?”

“What?” Iwaizumi said, looking up at them. “They aren’t holding hands, why would you think that.”

“That’s how I see it.”

“That’s just stupid. They’re just stars - points of light. How can they be holding hands?”

“Constellations tell stories, Iwa-chan. I told you this. And the story I see is that they’re holding hands.”

“You’re stupid they aren’t holding hands -”

“But we are.”

Iwaizumi sucked in a breath and stared at Oikawa, feeling the other’s hand in his own. It wasn’t the first time. They’d held hands before, to help each other climb over obstacles or in comfort after tragedy struck. But never like this. Never when they were inside, and alone, and lying down, and talking about it like it was holding hands.

This was all Oikawa’s fault.

Suddenly the confidence on the other’s face crumpled, as if he’d realized that his provocation had taken a turn into something far, far too real.

Too real and revealing for both of them.

Iwaizumi felt Oikawa’s hand slip out of his grasp, and watched as his best friend turned back and looked up at the stars. His hand felt cold.

His heart was pounding in his chest.

He lay back and looked up, mouth opening a dozen times to say something but he didn’t have the words. Not yet.

It was too big, too close, and he wasn’t ready. Oikawa -

It was easier to just look at the stars.

Easier to focus on the little shimmering points of light, each beacons pointing the way to the true lights that lay hidden behind a layer of cloud. 

Easier to look at beautiful things from some sort of distance.

“Thank you,” Oikawa finally said, and Iwaizumi just nodded.

His heartbeat was calmer now.

Looking over at Oikawa’s face, he saw calm there too. Calm, and happiness, and something that made this whole thing worth it.

“We can do this again,” Iwaizumi finally said. “As many nights as we need to. As long as it takes until the clouds go away.”

“Good,” Oikawa said.

Iwaizumi just watched the lights. They didn’t shift, not like real stars, but he figured it would do for now.

All too soon he heard his best friend yawning beside him. An answering yawn forced Iwaizumi’s mouth open, and he covered his mouth, seeing Oikawa glance over at him.

“I really like your stars,” Oikawa said, giving him another of those long looks. He looked sleepy now though. More relaxed than Iwaizumi had seen in a long time.

Iwaizumi just nodded.

He was sleepy himself. But that was alright,

It would be nice to sleep again under a canopy of stars.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments are very welcome and also helpful <3
> 
> And you can check me out on tumblr at http://kaiyou-does-personal.tumblr.com/


End file.
